On leaving the anchorage on Tres Puntas I had already conditioned my mind to motoring the 100nm passage to Utila in the Bay Islands of Honduras, as the weather is this corner of the Gulf of Honduras is often bereft of wind. But calm conditions and a favourable tidal current made for a pleasant morning.
However, by mid-afternoon a 15kt headwind, slight seas and now adverse tidal current had caused uncomfortable conditions on board and a mutinous crew!
Overnight, the conditions improved, and especially with a spectacular sunrise over Honduras and a tidal current that turned favourable again.
After 34 hours at sea we arrived in the East Harbour anchorage on the south coast of the island late afternoon, and stayed on the boat to rest overnight. The priority on our first full day was to clear into Honduras.
The feature photograph above, is our first sunset of the harbour taken from the popular Happy Hour spot, Underwater Vision.
The main reason to stop in Utila was to complete some PADI scuba diving training, and I chose Underwater Vision to complete my Rescue Diver course and then to follow up with the Peak Performance Buoyancy course. Underwater Vision is a fabulous dive school with its own accommodation, beach bar and restaurant.
I love the way plans change, and often for the better…new crew originally planned to arrive in the Cayman Island is now arriving direct to Roatan, so I will have some more time in the Bay Islands and our eventual passage to Grand Cayman won’t be tied to airline schedules. This change was made possible because because the previous crew didn’t want to sail to the Cayman Islands. All’s well that ends well!
Once I knew the revised travel plan I went to One Breath Utila Freediving to book a beginner course under the Apnea Total training scheme. Freediving really tested my confidence and techniques under water and I had to work on a whole new set of skills. I have no desire to dive down to specific depths using just my own breath control, but I would like to develop the skill set to freedive with confidence.
It’s already February and I’m now planning to sail up to Roatan, the largest of the Bay Islands of Honduras.
The passage to Roatan from Utila is always into a headwind, so I chose a day with little wind to motor to Fantasy Island which was largely uneventful.
I set my alarm for 5:30am to see the sunrise from Fantasy Island Resort & Marina on my first morning, and although the sunrise wasn’t spectacular, the setting is spectacular as can be seen in the photograph.
I visited West End for an early morning Sun Yoga class with Christeen. The class was interrupted briefly with an earth tremor which shook the first floor yoga studio. While this raised some chatter among the yogis, we all remembered the recent devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake Turkey and Syria. As I write, five days after the earthquake, the death toll has already reached 22,000.
New crew arrived after a long series of flights, and it has taken a week adjusting to the inevitable jet lag. Plans to sail back down to Utila have changed because there are some strong winds due this week, and Fantasy Island marina is a safe place to stay, and I need to extend both the boat and my own visas to allow us time to choose a good weather window to sail to Grand Cayman. It remains winter in the northern hemisphere and winds can be strong.
Yesterday I extended my visa for another month. I don’t need a month but I want the freedom to visit Cayo Cochinos, and Utila again, and to wait for a good weather window to sail to Grand Cayman.
Meanwhile, we had a busy day of a Fire & Honey yoga class at Sun Yoga, a hike through the Carambola Botanical Gardens to view Anthony’s Key as seen in the photograph,followed by a late lunch in Anthony’s Key Resort.
Our final outing was to visit the Roatan Brewery for Sunday Lunch with Katya & Jeff and Alain & Lucie for craft beer and snitzel…and then we left our many good friends at Fantasy Island marina.
The passage to Cayos Cochinos began with a surprise as the boat touched the bottom exiting the reef at French Cay Harbour! After that tense moment we sailed at fabulous speeds to Cayos Cochinos where we anchored at Cochino Grande. There is a charge for anchoring which I have never yet experienced, and it’s cheaper to pay for a month than for three days! It’s an incredibly peaceful place and we snorkelled the coral reefs and hiked in search of the elusive rosy boa snake.
The 25nm passage to Utila was a creative mix of sailing, motor sailing and motoring. It’s now early March and it’s great to be back in Utila for diving and island exploring. We decided to take the Utila Dream ferry to La Ceiba on mainland Honduras for a two day trip staying at Hostel Guacamayos.
We should have stayed longer in La Ceiba because some places of interest were out of town and needed a day each to complete a decent visit. However, it was especially good to visit La Ceiba to stroll the malecon and pier to watch the sunset…and because one of the twenty-three local areas is called Barrio Inglés, or English Town, because of the prevalence of English speaking people during the period that La Ceiba was growing prosperous exporting bananas. But now back in Utila with some final boat jobs to complete and a decent weather window to find for the passage to Grand Cayman….a passage I was always destined to sail solo!
The situation with my crew went horribly wrong and, something I never thought I would say, I had to lock myself in my cabin and finally lock myself in the boat! Heaven forbid, if I never get attacked and boarded by pirates, then this will remain my most scary scenario of my sailing days!
Happy Spring Equinox….with wind and rain in Utila!
“Remember all the things we wanted.
Now all the memories are haunted.
We were always meant to say goodbye”
It’s the 1st April, the easterly winds are still crazy and so I’ve decided to stay in Utila to study for my Divemaster qualification which is likely to take most, if not all, of April. It wasn’t on my list of things to do, but there’s always an ever changing gang of Divemaster students at Underwater Vision, who inspired me to go for it.
The photograph is taken from Neptunes at Coral Beach Village on Utila.
My early training schedule was hampered by a strong dose of manflu…an especially virulent strain of influenza! I didn’t dive for over a week, but I was able to complete all nine sections of E-Learning. It is now Earth Day on 22 April and I’m about a third of the way through the list of activities. It is exciting and very intense, so I need to manage the remaining dives and other activities to maintain my energy levels. So at this moment I guess that I can complete the certification by mid May.
My birthday has been and gone quietly, and 69 sounds awfully old! But next month I’ll complete my Divemaster certification in Utila and then sail to Grand Cayman, so life is extremely good!
It is mid-May and I was on target to complete the Divemaster certification this week, until I developed a skin infection on my throat which the doctor treated with IV antibiotics and told me to keep the wound dry for a few days…so no diving! I have completed all the PADI online courses so my training program is now on hold for a few days!
Today, it is 29 May 2023, and my eldest son’s 33rd birthday. I reminded him that we are now closer to 2050 than to 1990…which seemed to unnerve both of us! I also visited the doctor again as it is almost two weeks since the flashpoint of my skin infection. He thinks there is still some microbial infection impeding full healing, and prescribed a cream to apply every day for seven days…and still no diving! So, as usual I now have a list of things to do while I wait for my health clearance, especially having the boat ready to leave….weather permitting.
Today is the Strawberry Full Moon of June, which is the fifth full moon since arriving in the Bay Islands of Honduras, and a heavenly sign that I really need to move on to new destinations. If I can restart my diving on Monday then I should be ready to leave Utila around mid month….please! BUT I can’t restart diving on Monday, and I now have a corticosteroid cream and an anti fungal cream to apply daily!
It’s now 8 June, World Ocean Day, and I’m neither sailing upon the ocean nor diving its waters. My skin infection seemed to be worsening and spreading a little, and so I went to the Cento de Salud to see the doctor. I’m now taking an oral antibiotic every six hours for ten days and applying an antibiotic cream. The doctor will also check the results of a blood test for any abnormalities. It is now three weeks since last diving and another ten days will make a full month lost. Once I have some certainty of being able to leave Utila with a full bill of health and a Divemaster certificate I will reassess my passage plan…do I continue to make the long passage south to Panama or make the shorter, and possibly safer, return to Rio Dulce in Guatemala.
It is now Saturday 17 June and my last day of taking oral antibiotics. I have been given the clearance by the dive school doctor to continue my diving, and I have a dive planned for Monday 19 June. A tropical depression has formed off the west coast of Africa and is heading towards the Caribbean with a strong possibility of forming a tropical storm. So I have decided to return to Rio Dulce, Guatemala for the hurricane season. I still plan to cross the Pacific in 2024, and I’ll head down to Panama after the hurricane season at the end of this year.
The Atlantic tropical depression increased into Tropical Storm Bret, and damaged the islands of Barbados and St Vincent and then died away. Today is Midsummer Day, and I have completed my Divemaster certification….phew! I then decided to complete three PADI Specialty courses, Wreck Diving, Deep Diving and Nitrox. These will be useful for diving wrecks as I continue my sailing plans westward.
Today, 29 June, is nine years since I sailed out of my hometown Hull marina, and headed south to the Mediterranean.
I have graduated as a PADI Divemaster and Master Scuba Diver, and I’m now ready to leave Utila to return to the Rio Dulce for hurricane season. Communications with the Immigration Agent in Livingston died during a four day National Holiday in Guatemala, and then (I presume) yachts with large drafts had booked the following few days as a Super Full Moon resulted in stronger high tides to ease crossing the sand bank in the Rio Dulce. So I am booked to clear in to Guatemala at Livingston on Monday 10th July.
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